Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler was an American actor, playwright and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his portrayal of the Chinese-American detective in 22 films made between 1938 and 1946. Before becoming Chan, Toler played supporting roles in 50 motion pictures and was a highly regarded comic actor on the Broadway stage.
Early life and career
Hooper G. Toler Jr., who was called Sidney Toler from childhood, was born April 28, 1874, in Warrensburg, Missouri. He showed an early interest in the theater, acting in an amateur production of Tom Sawyer at the age of seven. He left the University of Kansas and became a professional actor in 1892, playing the heavy in a performance of a melodrama called The Master Man in Kansas City. In 1894 he joined the Corse Payton company and toured for four years. His success in leading roles at the Lee Avenue Academy in Brooklyn brought an invitation to join the company of Julia Marlowe. He toured with her for two years, playing the Duke of Buckingham in When Knighthood Was in Flower.In Brooklyn, Toler played leads with the Columbia Theatre Stock Company and sang baritone with the Orpheum Theatre's operatic stock company. In 1903, he made his Broadway debut in the musical comedy, The Office Boy.
Over the next nine years Toler had his own theatre companies in Portland, Maine, and Halifax, Nova Scotia—at one point having 12 stock companies on the road. He began a prolific career as a playwright, writing The Belle of Richmond, The Dancing Master, The House on the Sands and more than 70 other plays. One particular success was a war play called The Man They Left Behind, which was presented by 67 companies in a period of three months and by 18 different companies in a single week.
In 1921 Paramount Pictures released two films based on Toler's plays: The Bait, adapted from The Tiger Lady, and A Heart to Let, based on Agatha's Aunt, which Toler adapted from a novel by Harriet Lummis Smith. Three of his plays reached Broadway: The Golden Days, which starred Helen Hayes, The Exile, and Ritzy.
Toler earned fame as an actor on the Broadway stage, working for David Belasco for 14 years. He was best known for his comedy roles, from the detective-butler in On the Hiring Line —a performance that The New York Times called "one of the comedy high spots of the week"—to Cool Kelly the iceman in It's a Wise Child.
In 1929 Toler made his first film, Madame X, and in 1931, after the Boston run of It's a Wise Child, he moved to Hollywood. He played supporting roles in films including White Shoulders, Tom Brown of Culver, Blonde Venus, The Phantom President, The World Changes, Spitfire, Operator 13, The Call of the Wild, Three Godfathers, The Gorgeous Hussy, Double Wedding, The Mysterious Rider and Law of the Pampas.
Charlie Chan series
Following the death of Warner Oland, Twentieth Century-Fox began the search for a new Charlie Chan. Thirty-four actors were tested before the studio decided on Sidney Toler. Twentieth Century-Fox announced its choice on October 18, 1938, and filming began less than a week later on Charlie Chan in Honolulu, which had been originally scripted for Warner Oland and Keye Luke. Toler's portrayal of the Chinese detective in Charlie Chan in Honolulu was very well received. Besides Toler, there was another change in the series. Sen Yung, as Number Two Son Jimmy, replaced Number One Son Lee, who had been played by Keye Luke. Toler's Chan, rather than merely mimicking the character that Oland had portrayed, had a somewhat sharper edge that was well suited for the rapid changes of the times, both political and cultural. When needed, Charlie Chan now displayed overt sarcasm, usually toward his son Jimmy.Through four years and eleven films, Toler played Charlie Chan for Twentieth Century-Fox. However, in 1942, following the completion of Castle in the Desert, Fox concluded the series. The wartime collapse of the international film market may have been a factor, but the main reason was that Fox was curtailing virtually all of its low-budget series. Fox's other "B" series — Jane Withers, Michael Shayne, The Cisco Kid — also ended that year. Only Laurel and Hardy remained in Fox's "B" unit, until it shut down at the end of 1944.
With Fox no longer producing Chan films, Toler bought the screen rights to the Charlie Chan character from Eleanor Biggers Cole, the widow of Chan's creator, Earl Derr Biggers. Toler had hoped that if he could find someone to produce new Charlie Chan films, starring himself, Fox would distribute them. Fox declined, having already dropped the series, but Toler sold the idea to Monogram Pictures, a lower-budget film studio. Philip N. Krasne, a Hollywood lawyer who invested in film productions, partnered with James S. Burkett to produce the Monogram Chans.
With the release of Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, the effects of a more limited budget were apparent. Production values were no match for those of Fox; Monogram's budgets were typically about 40% of what Fox's had been. In fairness to Monogram, the films did gradually improve, with The Chinese Cat, The Shanghai Cobra, and Dark Alibi often cited as favorites by fans. Cast changes were again made: Sen Yung's Jimmy was replaced by Benson Fong as Number Three Son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland played the ever-present and popular Birmingham Brown, who brought comedy relief to the series. Monogram's Charlie Chan films were profitable and successful; they boasted tricky screenplays with many surprise culprits and murder devices, and frequent appearances by "name" character actors.
Later years
By the end of 1946, age and illness were affecting Toler. Diagnosed with cancer, the 72-year-old Toler was so ill during the filming of Dangerous Money and Shadows over Chinatown that he could hardly walk. Monogram hired Toler's original foil, "Number Two Son" Victor Sen Yung, for Toler's last three films, quite probably to ease the burden on Toler. Toler mustered enough strength to complete his last film, The Trap, which was filmed in July–August 1946 and released in November that same year.. Toler's Monogram output matched his Fox output: 11 films for each studio.Personal life
On August 29, 1906, Toler married actress Vivian Marston of Boston, Massachusetts. She died in Hollywood on October 7, 1943, after an illness of seven months. Four weeks later, he married sculptor Vera Tattersall Orkow, a British-born actress credited as Viva Tattersall when she and Toler performed together and co-wrote the plays Dress Parade and Ritzy. Their marriage lasted until Toler's death.Sidney Toler died on February 12, 1947, at his home in Los Angeles from intestinal cancer. Monogram continued the Charlie Chan series with actor Roland Winters, who appeared in six Chan features.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1929 | Madame X | Merivel | |
| 1929 | ' | Vitaphone Varieties release 811 | |
| 1929 | In the Nick of Time | Vitaphone Varieties release 897–898 | |
| 1930 | ' | Vitaphone Varieties release 992 | |
| 1931 | White Shoulders | ||
| 1931 | Strictly Dishonorable | Mulligan | |
| 1932 | Strangers in Love | ||
| 1932 | Radio Patrol | ||
| 1932 | Is My Face Red? | ||
| 1932 | Tom Brown of Culver | ||
| 1932 | Speak Easily | Stage director | |
| 1932 | Blondie of the Follies | Pete | |
| 1932 | Blonde Venus | ||
| 1932 | ' | Aikenhead | |
| 1932 | Over the Counter | Short film | |
| 1932 | He Learned About Women | Wilson | |
| 1933 | ' | ||
| 1933 | King of the Jungle | ||
| 1933 | ' | ||
| 1933 | ' | Pierre | |
| 1933 | ' | Hodgens | |
| 1934 | Massacre | ||
| 1934 | Dark Hazard | ||
| 1934 | Spitfire | ||
| 1934 | Registered Nurse | ||
| 1934 | ' | ||
| 1934 | Upperworld | Moran | |
| 1934 | Operator 13 | ||
| 1934 | Here Comes the Groom | ||
| 1935 | Romance in Manhattan | Police sergeant | |
| 1935 | ' | ||
| 1935 | Champagne for Breakfast | Judge | |
| 1935 | Orchids to You | ||
| 1935 | ' | ||
| 1935 | This Is the Life | ||
| 1936 | Three Godfathers | ||
| 1936 | Give Us This Night | ||
| 1936 | ' | ||
| 1936 | Our Relations | ||
| 1936 | ' | ||
| 1937 | That Certain Woman | ||
| 1937 | Double Wedding | Keogh | |
| 1938 | Gold Is Where You Find It | ||
| 1938 | Wide Open Faces | Sheriff | |
| 1938 | One Wild Night | Lawton | |
| 1938 | ' | ||
| 1938 | If I Were King | ||
| 1938 | Up the River | ||
| 1938 | Charlie Chan in Honolulu | ||
| 1939 | Disbarred | ||
| 1939 | King of Chinatown | ||
| 1939 | ' | ||
| 1939 | Charlie Chan in Reno | ||
| 1939 | Heritage of the Desert | Nosey | |
| 1939 | Charlie Chan at Treasure Island | ||
| 1939 | Law of the Pampas | ||
| 1939 | City in Darkness | ||
| 1940 | Charlie Chan in Panama | ||
| 1940 | Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise | ||
| 1940 | Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum | ||
| 1940 | Murder Over New York | ||
| 1941 | Dead Men Tell | ||
| 1941 | Charlie Chan in Rio | ||
| 1942 | Castle in the Desert | ||
| 1942 | ' | ||
| 1943 | ' | Serial | |
| 1943 | Isle of Forgotten Sins | Krogan | |
| 1943 | White Savage | Wong | |
| 1944 | Charlie Chan in the Secret Service | ||
| 1944 | ' | ||
| 1944 | Black Magic | ||
| 1945 | ' | ||
| 1945 | It's in the Bag! | ||
| 1945 | ' | ||
| 1945 | ' | ||
| 1946 | ' | ||
| 1946 | Dark Alibi | ||
| 1946 | Shadows Over Chinatown | ||
| 1946 | Dangerous Money | ||
| 1946 | ' |